Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, are gearing up to host the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, marking the first time the Winter Olympics will be officially co-hosted by multiple cities. The games are scheduled to begin on February 6 and conclude on February 22, 2026, drawing over 3,500 athletes to northern Italy, according to Time.
Milan, a financial and fashion hub, will host ice sports such as figure skating and hockey, while Cortina d'Ampezzo, a resort town in the Italian Dolomites, will host skiing, snowboarding, and other mountain events, Time reported. The bid from Milan and Cortina won in 2019, surpassing a joint bid from Stockholm and Åre in Sweden.
Meanwhile, as the Winter Olympics approach, American hockey star Hilary Knight is preparing for her fifth and final appearance at the games. Knight, a 10-time world champion, has been a key figure in the U.S.-Canada hockey rivalry, according to Time. Since women's hockey debuted at the 1998 Nagano Games, the two countries have met in the gold-medal match in every tournament except one, in 2006, Time noted. Canada has won four of the six Olympic championship duels, securing five overall Olympic women's hockey golds, while the United States has won two, in 1998 and 2018.
Away from the Olympic preparations, the fourth winter of Russia's war on Ukraine has been particularly brutal, with Russia repeatedly attacking Ukraine's energy grid, according to NPR Politics. In Kyiv, many residents are facing heat and electricity blackouts that last for days. Candles have become a last resort for light when emergency power sources fail, NPR Politics reported. "February ... is sobbing," the Ukrainian poet Serhiy Zhadan wrote, as quoted by NPR Politics, reflecting the somber mood in the country.
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